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Original poster

Who thinks Australia and NZ have got it right ?

999 replies

marilenagrace · 18/04/2021 11:06

What do you think ? Do you think that keeping everyone out of the country is the right approach long term to deal with covid ? Do you wish we did that here in the UK ?

OP posts:
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15
AliceMcK · 23/04/2021 16:05

NZ & OZ are fairly self sufficient, they don’t need to rely on other countries to continue as normal. Far less importing than the UK. Plus they have stunning counties that people like to enjoy. And as some people living in NZ have said, travelling abroad is expensive so not as common as it is here. It just wouldn’t work here. Too many people are so use to their cheap European holidays. People barely managed a few months without going overseas. If the governments were to close boarders like NZ & OZ there would be riots in the streets about people’s civil liberties being taken away. Add how much the country relies on imports and exports, then there are those who commute between the uk and Europe countries, it just wouldn’t be particle.

It will be interesting to see how they plan on opening up to the rest of the world though.

IrishMamaMia · 23/04/2021 17:20

I completely agree @AliceMcK admittedly there have been times where I wish that wasn't the case and that we could pull up the draw bridge. It seen
I'm enjoying where we are now in the UK , everyone is much more confident with our opening up this time as so many of us have some immunity. There is a sense of joy on the streets. I don't think we've seen the back of Covid yet sadly but just living in the moment for now.

TattyDevine · 23/04/2021 18:11

I think in some ways Australia (and NZ)'s approach made less sense pre- vaccine. There was talk about there never being a vaccine; talk of a vaccine being barely 50% effective; talk of a vaccine taking 5-10 years to achieve and not being a panacea.

In that scenario I'm really not sure what they could do.

Instead now, whilst it looked a bit like they hid under the duvet and waited for a vaccine, they did in fairness have a vaccine of their own being created up in Brisbane, I think, but it got the shovel after some false HIV positives or something (yikes - glad I wasn't on that trial!) (I was on the Novavax one here in the UK)

With the hindsight of a vaccine it looks great, if they can just get it out in a nice timely manner, and swerve some of the supply issues. They did put their eggs in very few baskets, but not many countries threw so much dosh and was so keen to gamble as Boris alongside the wonderful Kate Bingham (she better have an OBE soon). If it had fallen on it's arse we'd be dissing it in the same way as we do Dido Harding's world beating 12 billion pound test track and trace, only it bore fruit in a wonderful way thankfully. But he did gamble with a fair bit of taxpayers money. Not complaining.

So to the poster who said it will be interesting to see how they open up - yes it will, and yes, of course they will.

I'd also like a parallel universe crystal ball to see what would have happened with no vaccine (my mum calls them "covid virgins") but there's no point speculating. I wonder if it just would have taken hold one winter after snap 3 day lockdown 3,253,000 and they just said "oh fuck it".

I just want to state that all jokes aside, I really do think what they did for Australia was the right thing for them, and that, for the time being, includes the snap 3 day lockdowns they have from time to time, because you don't get this far in things and fuck it all up now, do you.

eaglejulesk · 23/04/2021 21:02

Alondra I'm enjoying your posts, but honestly, those of us who actually know what is happening down under are wasting our time trying to get through to the superior English posters.

What they don't get is that people living in this part of the world, or indeed the USA, are different to them. We understand the huge impact things like bushfires, drought, earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis etc. have on people's lives - and to us a pandemic, and it's restrictions, are just something else to deal with the best way we can and ultimately move on from. Many of us also have inherited some of the internal fortitude which the early settlers had. We also know that no amount of foot stamping and whinging about 'rights' changes anything - so we just get on with it.

It seems that the UK has latched onto their successful vaccine programme - and rightly so - but have swept under the carpet what happened beforehand in the hope that everyone else will forget about it and they can claim that their response was the right one.

ButtonMoony - your posts are simply ridiculous, and yet on you go spouting rubbish ......

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:07

So much blowing smoke up one’s own behind at the same time as getting it wrong.

It makes me wonder if some have ever lived elsewhere and get that they are not some extra being better than all others.

Internal fortitude made me laugh. Yes we’ve had it so easy here this year. A doddle compared to the greatness of that.

Ridiculous.

eaglejulesk · 23/04/2021 21:10

You are so angry sounding all the time. Aren’t you a bit happy about life yet?

I am extremely happy about life - why would I not be? I'm not actually an angry person, just angry at those on MN (which may be based in the UK but has many posters from other countries - you don't own it) who feel they are so superior to anyone from Australia/NZ/the USA/insert any country other than England and must point that out. You will notice I said England not the UK as it seems to me it is the English (aka Whinging Poms) who are the worst offenders.

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:13

@eaglejulesk

You are so angry sounding all the time. Aren’t you a bit happy about life yet?

I am extremely happy about life - why would I not be? I'm not actually an angry person, just angry at those on MN (which may be based in the UK but has many posters from other countries - you don't own it) who feel they are so superior to anyone from Australia/NZ/the USA/insert any country other than England and must point that out. You will notice I said England not the UK as it seems to me it is the English (aka Whinging Poms) who are the worst offenders.

I don’t think you realise the tone on your own posts.

You sound incredibly self congratulatory as well as hugely down on the English or Poms as you call them. Everything they do and are is shit or bad etc

It’s tiresome but also true to form. It’s been on nearly every thread like this for whole pandemic.

eaglejulesk · 23/04/2021 21:13

Internal fortitude made me laugh. Yes we’ve had it so easy here this year.

No-one said you've had it easy. Do you know what internal fortitude means? The majority of threads on MN show anything but internal fortitude.

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:16

@eaglejulesk

Internal fortitude made me laugh. Yes we’ve had it so easy here this year.

No-one said you've had it easy. Do you know what internal fortitude means? The majority of threads on MN show anything but internal fortitude.

We still got through it didn’t we?

Standing and enjoying life again. Moving on from Covid fear. It’s great.

Just because you read mn threads you do not know the reality here. It’s obvious by your incredibly snide posts.

eaglejulesk · 23/04/2021 21:22

You sound incredibly self congratulatory as well as hugely down on the English or Poms as you call them.

I am not self congratulatory, merely sticking up for the response from this part of the world in the face of people who have no idea about life here telling us how superior they are. It's been happening for a long time, not just on this thread - any time any other country is mentioned on MN the English pile on to tell us how they do whatever it is so much better. Also, I do not call the English Poms - it was not me who coined the Whinging Poms moniker, it's been around since before I was born and when I was young I thought it was a terrible thing to say. Now I can see why it came about.

Far from being down on the English I have several friends in England, but they are so different from some, not all, of the posters on this thread I could be forgiven for thinking they are a different race completely.

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:25

Funnily enough I am Aus / U.K. I know the term well and I love my Aus home but my god the anti UK rhetoric is tiresome.

TattyDevine · 23/04/2021 21:30

Legend in your own backyard Eagle.

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:30

The fortitude that you claim you have in higher amounts is not something I used in Aus for first part of my life compared to this.

English have high compliance rates and have had it hard. If you hang around a forum to get some validation of the whinging Pom term well that’s your call. It’s zero indication of what people have been through.

Kendodd · 23/04/2021 21:40

I would go further. I think the whole world should have adopted the Aus/NZ model. If world leaders hadn't been asleep at the wheel covid could have been extinguished early last year without even any need for a vaccine. Unfortunately if they had taken this option early on and thrown everything at it while there were still small numbers, we, the electorate, would never have forgiven them. We would forever have gone on about how covid was nothing and how our leaders had wasted billions, shut down economies, stopped transport etc fighting a disease a few hundred people had.

Hopefully having seen how covid is unfolding, world leaders will take better action next time and the public will let them. I suspect nobody will have learnt a thing though.

TheKeatingFive · 23/04/2021 21:45

I think the whole world should have adopted the Aus/NZ model. If world leaders hadn't been asleep at the wheel covid could have been extinguished early last year without even any need for a vaccine.

If you think ALL countries in the world had the wherewithal to close borders and impose strict lockdowns, then you’re incredibly naive.

And it would have taken all countries to have done this to get out without vaccines. So not realistic, sorry.

Kendodd · 23/04/2021 21:53

If you think ALL countries in the world had the wherewithal to close borders and impose strict lockdowns,

Yes I do.
This could have been done early on if world leaders had had the ambition and determination to do it and the willingness to help each other. Unfortunately far, far to many people (including politicians) just throw up their hands and say it's too hard before they even bother trying.

Kendodd · 23/04/2021 21:55

There have been a few lucky countries with exceptional leaders who took this virus as seriously as it needed from the start and did rise to the challenge.

MarshaBradyo · 23/04/2021 21:56

@Kendodd

If you think ALL countries in the world had the wherewithal to close borders and impose strict lockdowns,

Yes I do.
This could have been done early on if world leaders had had the ambition and determination to do it and the willingness to help each other. Unfortunately far, far to many people (including politicians) just throw up their hands and say it's too hard before they even bother trying.

It might be different next time but don’t you think it was more to do with the WHO response on borders. They were very central to response in very early days
TheKeatingFive · 23/04/2021 21:56

This could have been done early on if world leaders had had the ambition and determination to do it and the willingness to help each other.

What about the ones that didn’t have the financial wherewithal to support their poor to ‘stay home’? Have you seen what’s happening in India at the minute? For some countries, lockdown isn’t an option. Because it means people starving.

TheKeatingFive · 23/04/2021 22:00

There have been a few lucky countries with exceptional leaders who took this virus as seriously as it needed from the start and did rise to the challenge.

There are many circumstantial factors that you aren’t taking into account here. NZ were about six weeks behind Italy in terms of infection rates. That was luck. But it made a huge difference in terms of having time to plan and public support for strict measures.

echt · 23/04/2021 22:01

I think the whole world should have adopted the Aus/NZ model. If world leaders hadn't been asleep at the wheel covid could have been extinguished early last year without even any need for a vaccine

Not possible. Too many differences in terms of economies and populations. Au and NZ were lucky as well as doing (mostly) the right thing for them. We can look over our shoulders and see ways in which any country could have handled it better, but wholesale adoption of some models which worked for one aren't workable for all.

We are none of us out of the woods yet.

Kendodd · 23/04/2021 22:13

Not possible

Yes possible.
January 2020 was their window, pandemics are completely predictable, world leaders sat on their hands.

TheKeatingFive · 23/04/2021 22:35

pandemics are completely predictable

Say what now? Hmm

JassyRadlett · 23/04/2021 22:36

I'm enjoying your posts, but honestly, those of us who actually know what is happening down under are wasting our time trying to get through to the superior English posters.

You must bloody hate those of us who are Australians living in the UK. All that natural internal fortitude, a degree of knowledge about our home country, and we’ve survived Plague Island Apocalypse. And we rub along all right with the superior English posters. Maybe we ditched the chip on our shoulders.

Delatron · 23/04/2021 22:48

Current favourite expressions on this thread:
‘Internal fortitude’ and ‘predictable pandemics’